by Kate Seltzer, The Virginia Pilot
Below are excerpts shared with permission from The Virginia Pilot. Read full article.
“The last month has been pretty nightmarish,” said Kristen Larcher, [CCC's] director of the Refugee and Immigration program. “We have received several executive orders, notices of suspension or termination of contracts that have pretty much changed our entire operation.”
[Commonwealth Catholic Charities] has resettled about 1,500 individuals in the Newport News area since 2018.
When refugees flee violence, persecution or war in their home countries to seek safety in the United States, the process can take years. They often wind up in a second country of asylum while they await a lengthy vetting process. The people Catholic Charities helps have been granted visas to travel to the U.S. and promised assistance to find housing and employment.
...
Since October, Commonwealth Catholic Charities has taken on 96 cases, a total of 378 people coming from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria and Ukraine. The nonprofit is still assisting 60 families while they look for work.
The federal announcements have meant a lot of scrambling, Larcher said, including emergency fundraising efforts to make sure existing refugees in the program are getting basics met, such as rent and utilities.
So far, the organization has raised $280,000 to pay for rent for all new arrivals through March. They hope to raise an additional $120,000 to cover rent through April and May. About $41,000 of the anticipated funding gap affects refugees in Hampton Roads.
...
“Despite that funding and that program suspension and termination, we can’t not continue to take care of refugees that have just come that were assigned to us,” Larcher said. “These are individuals who are going to be part of our community, and we recognize in solidarity with them that we’re all part of one human family.”
Comments